Little Mac (Punch-Out!!)
Little Mac is the playable protagonist in the Nintendo NES game Mike Tyson's Punchout!! and presumably Super Punchout!! for the SNES. Little Mac is known by fans for his jumping uppercut called the "Star uppercut" which often knocks his opponents unconscious. He has been confirmed as an Assist Trophy in the upcoming Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawlhttp://www.destructoid.com/hands-on-with-super-smash-bros-brawl-48983.phtml. The Beginning He is described as a 17 year old, 4"8, 107lbs. kid from the Bronx, New York. He is interested in getting into the World Video Boxing Association, which has a long history of rookie boxers joining the ranks in an effort to become world champions. He traveled New York in hopes of searching for someone that could train him. He met 200 different trainers and was rejected 200 times. It was not until he met Jerome "Doc" Louis, who was a former heavyweight champion in his own right, that he began his journey to the top of the Boxing circuit. Doc gives Little Mac advice between rounds in both games. Doc Louis put Little Mac through a hard training regime, in which Little Mac was eventually able to overcome. Once it seemed that Little Mac was ready, Doc Louis put his skills to the test. Little Mac fought the likes of King Hippo, Soda Popinski, Glass Joe and many other boxers before reaching the final fight against Mike Tyson, which saw Little Mac gaining the victory and the championship. SNES Super Punch Out!! and beyond The SNES version of Super Punch-Out!! features a blond-haired boxer named by the player. The Electronic Arts game, Fight Night: Round 2 for the Nintendo GameCube identifies this character as "Little Mac", but his appearance and naming in Fight Night is not considered canonical due to the third-party nature of the product. Little Mac was also featured as the protagonist in the Punch-Out!! stories featured in Valiant Comics' Nintendo Comics System, appearing in the stories "The First Fight", "Outsiders", and "Fox and Hounds" . He also makes a cameo in the prologue short of the Captain N comic books, suggesting that his stories are canonical to the Captain N continuity, although he never showed up in any of the actual Captain N stories (nor did King Hippo, a Captain N regular, appear in the Punch-Out!! stories). He can also be found as a Hasbro Action Figure, as an Applause action figure, and in a Topps trading card series. A different character? In the sequel for Mike Tyson's Punchout!! for the SNES entitled Super Punchout!!, The protagonist sports blonde hair, big blue eyes, and a more detailed physique. Losing his pitch black hair, eyes, and his green boxing gloves. Whether this is indeed the same Little Mac from the original NES Punch-Out!! is unknown. It may be possible that this unnamed character is meant to be a redesigned Little Mac (prototype versions of the game featured a dark-haired boxer in his place) or is simply just an entirely different character. Reception Since his appearance in the Punch-Out!! series, Little Mac has received generally positive reception and is regarded as a major Nintendo character. GameSpot featured him in a user poll as part of the "all time greatest video game hero" contest. Nintendo Power listed Little Mac as their 11th favorite hero, stating that he taught gamers that more intimidating foes can be overcome by patience, persistence, and "pattern recognition". GamesRadar listed him as the 68th greatest video game hero, and called him the "definition of an underdog hero", due to fighting much larger opponents than himself. GamesRadar's Mikel Reparaz listed Mac's Star Uppercut as one of the most satisfying uppercuts in video games. His appearance in Super Punch-Out!! received negative reception from NintendoWorldReport's Neal Ronaghan and Bryce Holliday (producer of the Wii game), the latter who felt that the lack of Doc Louis caused Super Punch-Out!! to be weaker than the NES game. In their list of the top five racist video games, 1UP.com listed the Punch-Out!! franchise, and referred to Little Mac as the "Great White Hope" relative to the stereotypical character designs of his opponents. The Escapist s Sumantra Lahiri wrote that Little Mac was the only boxer in the game who didn't have a "negative stereotype associated with him". s Black Eye |url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_184/5649-Punch-Out-s-Black-Eye |work=The Escapist'' |last=Lahiri |first=Sumantra |date=2009-01-13 |accessdate=2013-08-07}} Little Mac was announced as a playable character for the latest installation in the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, and has long been yearned for as such. Gamasutra's Kyle Orland commented that Mac's absence from the Super Smash Bros. series was "mind-boggling". The qualities listed included his popularity, his fighting ability, and his "retro cred"; Orland felt that it didn't make sense to feature characters such as Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch instead of him. IGN's Lucas M. Thomas and Matt Casamassina expressed disappointment that Little Mac was not playable in Brawl, and suggested that perhaps series creator Masahiro Sakurai couldn't think of a good set of moves for Mac. Little Mac has been featured in a number of merchandise items and collectibles. As part of a "boxing challenge" held by Nintendo at its Nintendo World store in Rockefeller Plaza, Nintendo awarded, in part, a training sweatshirt similar to Little Mac's. Nintendo also released a pair of Little Mac-signed green boxing gloves on Amazon.com, which were contained in a wood frame and casing. The band "Game Over" created a song called 'Little Mac's Confession', which follows Little Mac's "crushing KO" against Mr. Dream. References External Little Mac Links * Little Mac summary *WVBA Little Mac Profile *Red Tom's Little Mac Page *The Miseducation Of Little Mac *Little Mac's Diary (satirical article on X-Entertainment) *| McKenzie Weaver Category:Child characters in video games Category:Fictional American people in video games Category:Fictional American people of European descent in video games Category:Fictional American people of Italian descent Category:Fictional Italian people in video games Category:Fictional boxers Category:Fictional characters from New York City Category:Male characters in video games Category:Nintendo protagonists Category:Punch-Out!! characters Category:Super Smash Bros. fighters Category:Video game characters introduced in 1987